THIRTY-SIX SENATE DEMOCRATS VOTE AGAINST THE FIRST HISPANIC EVER NOMINATED FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL

Al Vasquez/La Prensa Hispana

The party line vote confirming Alberto R. Gonzales as the first Hispanic Attorney General in history with the help of 60 Republican votes came with a bit of grit stuck in the throat of many politically savvy Democrat Latinos.

There is a muted glee among Latinos that at long last a Hispanic has been named and confirmed to such a high post in government. There is also disconcertment because the victory happened with MAJOR Democrat opposition and Hispanics do not take kindly to surreptitiously having to stand against their party of preference.

Many Hispanics have been driven to question an allegiance to a party out of tune with the Hispanics need to be represented in national government. Latinos want to be representatives of their nation not only on the battlefield but in positions of leadership as well.

Democrat Latinos are drawing the unmistakable conclusion that going against a Latino for the party’s sake, goes against the grain. As one prominent Democrat Latino put it, “politically speaking, sometimes being right is just plain wrong”.

The majority of Latinos are Democrats and they resent having to pitch rocks at one of their own since the Democrat leadership has never been inclined to nominate Hispanics for leadership roles from within the Democrat party. It is time for the Democrat party leadership to support Hispanic advancement and dance with the voters who brung you!

The Senate tug of war has given Gonzales a victory as Latinos contemplate the fact, the road to success was paved with bad intentions. Bad intentions put forth by a party so aloof of the needs of Latino leadership, they have lost sight of what is “right”.

Senate Democrats have brazenly spoken out against Gonzales for showing his true colors for being more supportive of U.S. troops and U.S. policy than he is of captured terrorists. To hear their descriptive, a non-informed political novice would think Gonzales was whipping the bad guys with a stick instead of merely sounding the alarm at the outer gate of a nation under attack. For the great majority of Americans from both the red and blue states, being on “our side” is still considered an asset for a sitting U.S. Attorney General.

Senator Ted Kennedy, the great vessel of enlightenment, verbally attacked Gonzales for calling some provisions of the Geneva Convention “quaint” and “obsolete.” Kennedy makes no mention of the fact “terrorists” do not abide by the Geneva Convention, do not abide by any international rules of law, do not abide by any rules of morality, do not abide by any rules of principle, do not abide by any rules of ethics and do not abide by any rules of civil conduct. Terrorists mock civility, Democracy, Christianity, Judaism and all major religions including their own. They are a formless evil that kills people; therefore, you tell us Mr. Kennedy, how do you fight an army of mercenary terrorists’ intent on destroying ALL of US along with our freedoms? Your rhetoric is logically incomplete.

The fact Gonzales grew up as “the son of migrant workers, in a small, crowded home without hot water or a telephone,” as described by Senator Orrin Hatch should underline Gonzales’s rise to become the Attorney General Nominee as exemplary of perseverance, dedication and self-avowed commitment to success. Gonzales’s, graduation from Rice University and Harvard Law School despite the obstacle of poverty should demonstrate a keen sense of objectivity towards the reality of life; as opposed to a fantasy perpetuated in a life of never-ending wealth and entitlement exemplified by Kennedy and the other anti-Hispanic Democrats. Alberto Gonzales as an American of Latino descent has cultivated American qualities seemingly never learned nor practiced by the preponderance of those casting the nay votes against him. It is a vulgarity to swipe opportunity from those who have truly earned it.

Thirty six Democrats voted against Alberto R. Gonzales, ostensibly because Gonzales gave the United States of America a “broader definition” of torture. A definition aimed at making life less palatable for captured terrorists. Thirty-six Democrats voted against Alberto R. Gonzales because he “shamed America in the eyes of the whole world,” as expressed by Mr. Kennedy. The dichotomy becomes evident with the realization; Alberto Gonzalez has succeeded in breaking down a 216 year old cultural barrier where NO HISPANIC HAS BEEN BEFORE! Yet, 36 Democrats stood in the doorway, reminiscent of the “good ol days” of segregation and the 40 year reign of the Democrat party.

Thirty-six “No” votes by those who ironically do not know the meaning of shame! It is a shame Hispanics are not recognized for having been true American Warriors, proud in their overrepresentation among all casualties of war for WWI, WWII, Korean Conflict, Vietnam Conflict, Grenada, Somalia, Kuwait, Afghanistan and the Iraq War. It is a shame Hispanics have had to wait 216 years to be represented in a top government position such as Attorney General, it is a shame Democrats have been able to vote down all Hispanic nominees for top level positions in previous years, it is a shame Democrats cannot give credit to the Republican, Abraham Lincolns’ emancipation of the slaves in 1863, it is a shame Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1954, it is a shame Democrats opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and it is a darned shame there is a party representative of half of America who still think of Latinos as malleable sheep who will once again “understand” they are trying to “help us” by returning us to the back of the line as they have done for centuries.

We have never rightfully belonged at the bottom of the barrel or the back of the line! Putting it bluntly, the 36 Democrat Senate NO votes who demean conservative Hispanic/Latinos instilled with true American values are the ones to be “shamed in the eyes of the world”!

Wake-up Latinos, being oppressed by compulsion is not a good thing! For decades now we have lived on one day of promises and four years of neglect. You must see exploitation for what it is.

THE FOLLOWING SENATORS VOTED AGAINST THE FIRST-EVER HISPANIC/LATINO NOMINATED FOR ATTORNEY GENERAL:

Akaka (D-Hawaii)

Bayh (D-Indiana)

Biden (D- Delaware)

Bingaman (D-New Mexico)

BOXER (D- California)

Byrd (D-West Virginia)

Cantwell (D- Washington)

Carper (D- Delaware)

CLINTON (D- New York)

Corzine (D-New Jersey)

Dayton (D- MN)

Dodd (D-CT)

Dorgan (D- North Dakota)

Durbin (D- Illinois)

Feingold (D-Wisconsin)

FEINSTEIN (D-California)

Harkin (D-IA)

Jeffords (I-VT)

Johnson (D-South Dakota)

KENNEDY (D-Massachusetts)

KERRY (D-Massachusetts)

Kohl (D-WI)

Lautenberg (D-New Jersey)

Leahy (D- Vermont)

Levin (D- MI)

Lincoln (D- Arkansas)

Mikulski (D- Maryland)

Murray (D- Washington)

OBAMA (D- Illinois)

Reed (D- Rhode Island)

Reid (D- Nevada)

Rockefeller (D- West Virginia)

Sarbanes (D- Maryland)

Schumer (D- New York)

Stabenow (D- MI)

Wyden (D- Oregon)

BOTH CALIFORNIA SENATORS BARBARA BOXER AND SENATOR DIANE FEINSTEIN VOTED “NO”, AGAINST THE FIRST HISPANIC/LATINO EVER NOMINATED TO THE POST OF ATTORNEY GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES SINCE ITS INCEPTION IN 1789.

• SENATORS JOHN KERRY & EDWARD KENNEDY OF MASSACHUSETTS AND SENATOR HILARY CLINTON OF NEW YORK, FORMER FIRST LADY, VOTED “NO” AND AGAINST THE HISPANIC NOMINEE.

• OBAMA, THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN SENATOR FROM ILLINOIS PROVED TO BE NO FRIEND OF THE LATINO WITH HIS “NO” VOTE.

*** TO THEIR CREDIT AND TO BE COMMENDED, SENATOR SALAZAR (D-COLORADO), SENATOR LIEBERMAN (D-CT) SENATOR LANDRIEU (D-LOUISIANA), SENATOR NELSON (D-FLORIDA), SENATOR NELSON (D- NE) AND SENATOR PRYOR (D-AR), VOTED “YES” IN FAVOR OF ALBERTO GONZALES.

* All Republican Senators voted in favor of Gonzalez.